According to this article on Slate Magazine's website yes http://www.slate.com/id/2211158/?GT1=38002 but I disagree. Satellites have a wider coverage than 3G cellular internet or WIFI and this is by no means a new technology, it all started in the late 1980s when a satellite enthusiast proposed to the FCC to allocate some spectrum for the idea and to an extent it has made terrestrial AM and FM broadcasts endangered because of ad free music channels with real DJs on the air most of the time and also music that cannot be heard on terrestrial radio along with talk personalities exclusive to satellite and nationwide sports coverage. I personally own a Sirius/XM receiver and very much enjoy the wide variety of music and talk that satellite radio has to offer. These are my thoughts on the issue but what do you think. Is satellite radio really endangered because of mobile internet access or is it here to stay?
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Should Sirius/XM dump satellite for the internet?
- Thread starter nickstr
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pokemon1571
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Sure it might be dumb, but for example you can travel all over the nation and get the same station that you were listening at point A. Also XM and Sirius have a larger selection of stations, my mom has XM while my dad has Sirius. There are many music channels that don't have similar fm or am stations.
The same goes for the talk stations. Also the sound quality is better than FM radio. Now onto the XM dumping the satellites, I don't think this will happen.
1. The transition to used mobile broadband would be costly.
1a. I don't think XM or Sirius would start there own mobile network , they would lease it from some other provider.
1b. The speed isn't there yet, for XM and Sirius they would need at least 128k of continuing speed. On my 3G phone it is always varying.
2. Not only does XM and Sirius have satellites, they also use ground transmitters for the signal.
2b. XM makes money off of leasing there satellites to On Star.
I hope this doesn't happen, it would be a huge downgrade.
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It sure would be and that was an excellent point about 3G mobile broadband. The speeds are not there and huge gaps in coverage exist no matter what provider you have especially in rural areas. Also the satellites cover the entire country with relatively low power levels because of their high orbits about 22,000 miles above the surface of the earth. Good point about the ground relayers but those are mainly in urban areas with lots of tunnels which can block the satellite signal and like the satellites they operate on the S band as well but in a different portion of the band and their downlink is on the 12 GHz KU band which is the same one used for satellite TV providers. Not to mention that FM music stations typically have bland and unoriginal programming which is done to death all over the dial and even then the stations are on autopilot quite a bit of the time with no real DJs, just pre-recorded IDs and jingles. The only time I heard an FM station with original programming was on a trip to Missouri. While going through Nebraska I heard an FM station from Omaha which ran a format called classic pop which I really liked and sounded totally different from anything I have ever heard before. Back in the early days of commercial FM radio in the 1960s this was common for stations to experiment with new and original formats but today they have kind of fallen into a rut of running the same type of formats which are over done. The only way I see satellite radio being in danger is if the experimental spirit which was so common in the early days of FM radio comes back but until then satellite radio is here to stay.
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